Emor | Apr 30 - May 7, 2021 | 18 Iyar - 25 Iyar | Candle Lighting 7:34 Pm | Havdalah 8:38 Pm
בס"ד
EMOR | APR 30 - MAY 7, 2021 | 18 IYAR - 25 IYAR | CANDLE LIGHTING 7:34 PM | HAVDALAH 8:38 PM
SHABBAT THIS SHABBAT tual Scotch Tasting. Join us on Satur- day, May 8th at 9:00pm over Zoom for FRIDAY, APRIL 30 Going forward, the outdoor minyan will the opportunity to try out 4 new begin at 9am with Brachot; and will of- Scotches! Each tasting package will SHACHARIT 6:30 AM fer aliyot, hagba, and gelilah to fully contain four 2 ounces samples (you vaccinated men. decide if you want to share!) and costs CANDLE LIGHTING 7:34 PM $35. RSVP by April 30th! Following davening this Shabbat, we are MINCHA / MAARIV 7:30 PM resuming weekly kiddush outdoors. It's 5,690 miles from Fair Lawn to Jeru- SATURDAY, MAY 1 Please be mindful of social distancing salem. Join the community as we make etiquette. Masks are required at all the trek there in the One Step Closer SHACHARIT 9:00 AM times when in proximity to the common program! Between now and Yom food area. Yerushalayim, we will collectively com- LAST KRIAT SHMA 9:24 AM plete the journey to Jerusalem! Walk, Join the Rabbi between mincha and jog, bike, run or travel in any other ac- MINCHA 7:35 PM maariv for an exciting shiur as we ex- tive form and help us make it home by MAARIV / HAVDALAH 8:38 PM plore Sefer Ezra. May 9th! Log your miles here.
-is recited at Mussaf Save the date for an exciting Lag Ba אב הרחמים is recited at Mincha THIS WEEK צדקתך צדק Omer Field Day on Sunday, May 2nd at Rabbinic Intern R' Yair Lichtman will be 2:30 PM! Rain date is 5/30. The day will continuing an exciting series exploring feature a teens versus adults softball Responsa literature from current lead- game and relay races for the younger ing Poskim to COVID Halachic inquir- children! Not up for softball or races? ies. Please contact Rabbi Shestack to Join in the stands to cheer your team sponsor a session. The series will con- on! All are welcome. Exact location de- tinue on Sunday, May 2nd at 9 AM on tails are coming soon! Zoom. Miles this week: In honor of Shavout we are delighted to 1,931.42 The Talmud 4 All shiur will take place announce the next installment in our Total miles walked so far: on Monday, May 3rd at 8:15pm with food train series; a Salad Ex- 3,841.3 Rabbi Shestack. change! Sign up by 5/12 to exchange Miles remaining: a salad with another family on 5/16! 1,848.7 UPCOMING EVENTS Children ages 0-12 are invited to attend
our outdoor groups series kicking off on In the wake of the success of our Virtu- Shavuot in the shul parking lot! al Wine Tasting, we are planning a Vir- ZEMANIM SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY
5/2 5/3 5/4 5/5 5/6 5/7
Shacharit 8:00 AM 6:30 AM 6:30 AM 6:30 AM 6:30 AM 6:30 AM
Mincha/Maariv 7:43 PM 7:44 PM 7:45 PM 7:46 PM 7:47 PM 7:30 PM
Earliest Talit 4:52 AM 4:51 AM 4:49 AM 4:48 AM 4:46 AM 4:45 AM
Gedolah 1:29 PM 1:29 PM 1:29 PM 1:29 PM 1:29 PM 1:29 PM Shkia 7:55 PM 7:56 PM 7:57 PM 7:58 PM 7:59 PM Tzait 8:35 PM 8:36 PM 8:37 PM 8:38 PM 8:39 PM 8:40 PM
בס"ד EMOR APRIL 30, 2021
gghgh IN OUR SHUL
Thank you to everyone who responded to our COVID vaccine survey. Out of approximately 75 responses, all but one of the respondents have received at least their first vaccine and the vast majority of respondents are already fully vac- cinated. If anyone either18 needs-25 Saddle assistance River Road, in Fair scheduling Lawn, NJ 07410 a vaccine 201.797.0502 or has WWW.AHAVATACHIM.ORG concerns about the vaccine, please reach out to the Rabbi. Of the regular and semi-regular shabbat morning minyan attendees, approximately 95% have re- sponded they are or very shortly will be fully vaccinated; the remainder have not responded. In addition, a majority of the regular / semi regular outdoor minyan attendees have responded they are fully vaccinated.
Current NJ State requirements for indoor religious gathering mandate mask wearing and social distancing of six feet. Mask wearing and social distancing is required indoors at all times and is required at the outdoor minyanim. Outdoor shiurim and other social gatherings will accommodate both those wearing a mask and those who chose not to wear a mask. Our goal is to accommodate our memberships’ needs and expectations while being sensitive to the spectrum of concerns and viewpoints brought about by COVID. Please be both mindful and respectful of those with a different view- point. As we receive further guidance from the medical community, state and Rabbinic leadership, we will follow a grad- ual and phased approach to increasing and re establishing in-person programming, including indoor activities and food policies.
Anyone having questions or suggestions should not hesitate to contact Stephen Agress or the Rabbi.
ע״ה Shirley Vann has dedicated the attached Covenant & Conversation (used with permission of the Office of Rabbi Sacks) in memory of her beloved mother Necha Bat Yitzchok AHAVAT ACHIM PRESENTS: WEEKLY CLASSES COVID Halachic Inquiries Taught by: R' Yair Lichtman When: Sundays at 9:00am Where: on Zoom Talmud 4 All Shiur Taught by: Rabbi Ely Shestack When: Mondays at 8:15pm Where: on Zoom Exploring Sefer Ezra Taught by: Rabbi Ely Shestack When: Saturdays between Mincha & Maariv Where: outdoor minyan at shul HEY! GUESS WHAT? We are hosting a Scotch Tasting!
As if we need a reason to try out new drinks...
Join us on Saturday, May 8th at 9:00pm for the opportunity to try out 4 new Scotches and find a new favorite! The cost per tasting package is $35. (Each package contains four 2 ounce samples of different Scotches; hand picked by our expert! You decide if you are willing to share!)
This event will take place over Zoom. Tasting packages will be ready for pick up by 5/5 and the link will be sent out on 5/7.
RSVP BY APRIL 30TH! ONE STEP CLOSER It's 5,690 miles from Fair Lawn to Jerusalem. Join the community as we make the trek there! Between now and Yom Yerushalayim, we will collectively complete the journey to Jerusalem! Walk, jog, bike, run or travel in any other active form and help us make it home by May 9th! Log your miles here. Everyone counts. Every step counts. This year, all roads lead home. Questions? [email protected] Questions? Who can participate? Anyone! We are not excluding anyone from this journey! (We are calculating miles logged for kids under 10 at 2x.)
How many miles do I need to log? It's a community effort, (all the miles will be added together to hit our goal); there is no minimum participation requirement!
How often do I have to log my miles? Whenever you want! We will be announcing the leaders weekly though, so at least once a week is recommended.
Do I need to walk, run, or bike? Nope! You can travel your miles in any fashion. Log your miles here.
Questions? [email protected] Ahavat Achim Presents SHAVOUT SALAD EXCHANGE LET'S CELEBRATE SHAVOUT WITH A SALAD EXCHANGE IN HONOR OF THE YEAR'S FIRST FRUITS AND VEGETABLES! Sign up by 5/12 and deliver your salad on 5/16! Bug Checking Guide
The following is a practical digest of the Halachot of checking for bugs made in consultation with numerous halahic authorities and under the expressed guidance of Rabbi Asher Bush, kashrut expert and former chair of the RCA Va’ad Halacha.
The following do not require checking: Artichoke Bottoms, White Asparagus, Eggplant, Gourds, and Root Vegetables
Rinse thoroughly: Celery, Grapes, Mushrooms
Remove the 4 outermost leaves: Cabbage (Green and Red), Iceberg Lettuce
The following require a soap water check method: Basil, Bok Choy, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Chives, Cilantro, Dill, Sage, Rosemary, Romaine Lettuce, Collard Greens, Kale, Spinach (Leafy Greens), Strawberries (1) Place produce in a white bowl and fill the bowl with soapy water, (2) agitate the produce in the water for 15 seconds (30 seconds for broccoli/cauliflower), (3) remove the produce and place in another white bowl, (4) remove extraneous suds, (5) check the water carefully, (6) if there are no bugs, rinse the produce off in the other bowl. If you find bugs in the water of the first bowl repeat steps (1-5) as many times as needed until you do not find any bugs in the water.
Visual Check: Figs, Dates, Leeks, and Scallions
Peel off triangles with potato peeler: Asparagus
Not Recommended: Artichoke, Blackberries, Brussel Sprouts, Raspberries Ahavat Achim Youth Outdoor groups series FOR KIDS ages 0-12 Shavuot Kickoff Event: May 18 Parshat Korach: June 12 Rosh Chodesh Av & Matot-Masei: July 10th Shabbat Nachamu Tu B'Av Vaetchanan: July 24th Parshat Shoftim: August 14th
Following Davening at 11:00 AM In the shul parking lot Social distancing and masking required for parents and children over 2. No child may attend unacompanied. Rabbi Sacks zt”l had prepared a full year of Covenant & Conversation for 5781, based on his book Lessons in Leadership. Te Rabbi Sacks Legacy Trust will continue to distribute these weekly essays, so that people all around the world can keep on learning and fnding inspiration in his Torah.
On Not Being Afraid of Greatness
Emor 5781
Embedded in this week’s parsha are two of the most fundamental commands of Judaism – commands that touch on the very nature of Jewish identity. Do not desecrate My holy name. I must be sanctifed among the Israelites. I am the Lord, who made you holy and who brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord.’ (Leviticus 22:32) Te two commands are respectively the prohibition against desecrating God’s name, Chillul Hashem, and the positive corollary, Kiddush Hashem, that we are commanded to sanctify God’s name. But in what sense can we sanctify or desecrate God’s name? First we have to understand the concept of “name” as it applies to God. A name is how we are known to others. God’s “name” is therefore His standing in the world. Do people acknowledge Him, respect Him, honour Him? Te commands of Kiddush Hashem and Chillul Hashem locate that responsibility in the conduct and fate of the Jewish people. Tis is what Isaiah meant when he said: “You are My witnesses, says God, that I am God” (Isaiah 43:10).
On Not Being Afraid of Greatness 1 Emor 5781 Te God of Israel is the God of all humanity. He created the universe and life itself. He made all of us – Jew and non-Jew alike – in His image. He cares for all of us: “His tender mercies are on all his works” (Ps. 145:9). Yet the God of Israel is radically unlike the gods in which the ancients believed, and the reality in which today’s scientifc atheists believe. He is not identical with nature. He created nature. He is not identical with the physical universe. He transcends the universe. We are not capable mapping or quantifying Him by science – through observation, measurement and calculation - for He is not that “In ourselves we are kind of thing at all. How then is He known? testimony to something beyond ourselves. We Te radical claim of the Torah is that He is known, not exclusively but primarily, through Jewish history and through are God’s ambassadors the ways Jews live. As Moses says at the end of his life: to the world.” Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of? Has any other people heard the Voice of God speaking out of fre, as you have, and lived? Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? (Deut. 4:32-34) Tirty-three centuries ago, Moses already knew that Jewish history was and would continue to be unique. No other nation has survived such trials. Te revelation of God to Israel was unique. No other religion is built on a direct revelation of God to an entire people as happened at Mount Sinai. Terefore God – the God of revelation and redemption – is known to the world through the people of Israel. In ourselves we are testimony to something beyond ourselves. We are God’s ambassadors to the world. Terefore when we behave in such a way as to evoke admiration for Judaism as a faith and a way of life, that is a Kiddush Hashem, a sanctifcation of God’s name. When we do the opposite – when we betray that faith and way of life, causing people to have contempt for the God of Israel – that is a Chillul Hashem, a desecration of God’s name. Tat is what Amos meant when he said: Tey trample on the heads of the poor as on the dust of the ground, and deny justice to the oppressed ... so desecrate My holy name. (Amos 2:7) When Jews behave badly, unethically, unjustly, they create a Chillul Hashem. Tey cause others to say: I cannot respect a religion, or a God, that inspire people to behave in such a way. Te same applies on a larger, more international scale. Te Prophet who never tired of pointing this out was Ezekiel, the man who went into exile to Babylon afer the destruction of the First Temple. Tis is what he heard from God: I dispersed them among the nations, and they were scatered through the countries; I judged them according to their conduct and their actions. And wherever they went among the nations
On Not Being Afraid of Greatness 2 Emor 5781 they profaned My holy name, for it was said of them, “Tese are the Lord’s people, and yet they had to leave His land.” (Ezekiel 36:19) When Jews are defeated and sent into exile, it is not only a tragedy for them. It is a tragedy for God. He feels like a parent would feel seeing their child disgraced and sent to prison. A parent ofen feels a sense of shame and, worse than that, of inexplicable failure. “How is it that, despite all I did for him, I could not save my child from himself?” When Jews are faithful to their mission, when they live and lead and inspire as Jews, then God’s name is exalted. Tat is what Isaiah meant when he said, in God’s name: “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorifed” (Isaiah 49:3). Tat is the logic of Kiddush Hashem and Chillul Hashem. Te fate of God’s “name” in the world is dependent on us and how we behave. No nation has ever been given a greater or more fateful responsibility. And it means that we each have a share in this task. When a Jew, especially a religious Jew, behaves badly – acts unethically in business, or is guilty of sexual abuse, or uters a racist remark, or acts with contempt for others – it refects badly on all Jews and on Judaism itself. And when a Jew, especially a religious Jew, acts well – develops a reputation for acting honourably in business, or caring for victims of abuse, or showing conspicuous generosity of spirit – not only does it refect well on Jews. It increases the respect people have for religion in general, and thus for God. Maimonides adds, in the passage from his law code speaking of Kiddush Hashem: If a person has been scrupulous in his conduct, gentle in his conversation, pleasant toward his fellow creatures, affable in manner when receiving, not retorting even when affronted, but showing courtesy to all, even to those who treat him with disdain, conducting his business affairs with integrity ... And doing more than his duty in all things, while avoiding extremes and exaggerations – such a person has sanctifed God. Rabbi Norman Lamm tells the amusing story of Mendel the waiter. When the news came through to a cruise liner about the daring Israeli raid on Entebbe in 1976, the passengers wanted to pay tribute, in some way, to Israel and the Jewish people. A search was undertaken to see if there were any Jewish members on board the ship. Only one Jew could be found: Mendel the waiter. So, at a solemn ceremony, the captain of the cruise liner, on behalf of all the passengers, offered his deep congratulations to Mendel, who suddenly found himself elected de facto as the ambassador of the Jewish people. We are all, like it or not, ambassadors of the Jewish people, “We are all, and how we live, behave and treat others refects not only on us as individuals but on Jewry as a whole, and thus on Judaism and the God of like it or not, Israel. ambassadors…” “Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon ‘em,” wrote Shakespeare in Twelfh Night. Troughout history Jews have had greatness thrust upon them. As the late Milton Himmelfarb wrote: “Te number of Jews in the world is smaller than a small statistical error in the Chinese census. Yet we remain bigger than our numbers. Big things seem to happen around us and to us.”
On Not Being Afraid of Greatness 3 Emor 5781 God trusted us enough to make us His ambassadors to an ofen faithless, brutal world. Te choice is ours. Will our lives be a Kiddush Hashem, or God forbid, the opposite? To have done something, even one act in a lifetime, to make someone grateful that there is a God in heaven who inspires people to do good on earth, is perhaps the greatest achievement to which anyone can aspire. Shakespeare rightly defned the challenge: “Be not afraid of greatness.” A great leader has the responsibility both to be an ambassador and to inspire their people to be ambassadors as well.
1. How did the Jewish people become ambassadors of God? 2. Does this responsibility weigh heavily on you? 3. An act which creates a Kiddush Hashem - is this one of your life-long aspirations?
On Not Being Afraid of Greatness 4 Emor 5781